[fan] More control over HDR fan

[hummybee]

If that's the case, providing you are not concerned about fan noise, is it best to set the fan speed as high as possible to reduce the HDD temperature range from 'first on' to an 'as low as possible' maximum?

My Humax HDD specification shows a maximum temperature of 75c, so I was aiming for a maximum operating temperature of around 45c.

Is there anything to be gained by aiming for a lower temperature range?

 

[BMAX]

Not a lot!

 

[Black Hole]

If you haven't already, maybe worth a quick look to see if any of them could be 'modified' to power the fan in standby.

It's hardware. Unless you fancy rerouting the fan power to the standby rail, forget it (plus, of course, the PWM controller will have been shut down, so a bypass for that would be required...).

I'm a little puzzled. Why should the HDD temperature continue to rise after entering standby?

Regardless of previous answers to this, the HDD (and other internal components) act as a reservoir of heat. Once the fan stops and the HDR becomes an essentially sealed unit, the heat will try to even out even out by a diffusion process very similar to flow of electrons through a conductive medium. As the outside of the HDD is no longer being actively cooled, its thermal resistance is now greater and the skin temperature can indeed rise (although the internal temperature should decrease if there is nothing hotter elsewhere to flow to it). You must regard total heat as the quantity, spot temperatures are like voltage in an electrical circuit (voltage differences define the direction of current flow, not how much charge there is).

When the system reaches equilibrium, it will be at room temperature throughout. Until then, the heat has to dissipate by whatever means it can find - conduction, radiation, convection, and forced cooling (but there isn't any of that, and very limited convection). Essentially the heat will find its way to the outer case by conduction and internal radiation (and maybe a little convection, but with little temperature gradient there is not much to drive convection), and from there to the outside world by radiation and convection.

Similar happens in a car engine bay if you stop (killing air flow from motion) and turn off the engine (killing the rad fan, if yours does not run in standby). The heat inside the engine will continue to dissipate, and would be capable of boiling the coolant even after stopping if the coolant wasn't pressurised.

 

[BMAX]

All very good, the coolant gets hotter, but there is no way that the engine itself can possibly get any hotter as there is no longer any source generating heat.

 

[Black Hole]

It depends where you are measuring it. The cylinders themselves won't get hotter, but other engine components certainly will. Similarly the heat in an HDD is generated in the motor, voice coil, and their respective drivers. This heat could dissipate via the controller circuits, increasing their temperature more if there is no external cooling.

Whether any of this matters is a moot point.

 

[Trev]

Whether any of this matters is a moot point.

Do I sense a defeatist attitude here? Or is it that it does not really pass the 'so what' test?

 

[Black Hole]

I "feel" it might be good to vent the remaining heat before the box shuts down, but whether it will have any real benefit is dubious. One problem is that the HDD will continue spinning until the power goes, but when the power goes so will the fan.

A sudden burst of full fan just as it turns off (possibly after recording from standby) might be rather annoying, but if the tools are available people can use them as they wish.

 

[MikeSh]

Just for the info pool, I have a 1TB Advanced format HDD. I put Fan on a few days ago and set the min to 32%. Since then I don't think it's ever gone above min.
Looking at this evening's record the box has been in use for about 3.5hrs. Over the first hour the temp rose from ambient to about 51°C and since then has been between 51 and 52.

 

[BMAX]

A sudden burst of full fan just as it turns off (possibly after recording from standby) might be rather annoying, but if the tools are available people can use them as they wish.

A glance at the temperature graphs shows that to to produce a meaningful drop in disc temperature will require much more than a "sudden burst" of fan activity - more like several minutes. Any hot air removed will be promptly replaced.

 

[Kev_w]

I'm not concerned about the HDD heating up after its switched off.
Even when the HDD is on with no cooling the temperature only increases 5 degrees in 50mins. Worst case scenario would be if you were running standard fan behaviour (and why would you ) and you switched off your box when the HDD was at 54degrees just before the fan was about to turn on.
The HDD would have to somehow manage to maintain that rate of increase for over 2.5hours without power to get close to the 75degree limit set by the HDD manufacturer.

Also - are we sure the fan doesn't come on anyway as the box is switching to standby? I thought it came on in the time between the button being pressed and the HDD spinning down - but can't test it now.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[petrev]

So ?
Why . . .

Cancel that - updated to latest sysmon
graph looks fine now

Thanks

 

[Wallace]

That graph looks like normal 'standard' behavior to me. Your temp does reach quite a high peek before the fan drags the temperature down.

 

[Kev_w]

So ?

Why does my graph look like this horizontal blocks of time stacking up ???

Thats the old version of sysmon. The new version more accurately describes the state if the fan (i.e. off most of the time)


Posted on the move

 

[petrev]

That graph looks like normal 'standard' behavior to me. Your temp does reach quite a high peek before the fan drags the temperature down.

Thats the old version of sysmon. The new version more accurately describes the state if the fan (i.e. off most of the time)
Posted on the move

Thanks guys



I checked for updates and found the new version - strange as I had only just installed sysmon on that machine but must have had an older version in the package-manager I guess.

Great work on this little beaut by the way


Should have read the thread properly - would have seen the update to sysmon mentioned then - Doh !

 

[free30]

Thanks for this.

I'd like to be able to use the box with no fan for the first hour or so. Unless of cause it's needed. Be nice to be able to set the length of time from start-up to wait until it overrides the fan.
That would be the best of both worlds.

 

[hummybee]

Thanks for this.

I'd like to be able to use the box with no fan for the first hour or so. Unless of cause it's needed. Be nice to be able to set the length of time from start-up to wait until it overrides the fan.
That would be the best of both worlds.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you but why can't either NOT install the Fan Package or install and set to 0% minimum to achieve what you require?

 

[Black Hole]

He means have a time delay setting in the fan package so that the minimum setting is (say) 0% for the first 60 minutes and then 30% thereafter. I suggest having three user settings: initial min fan, minutes delay, post-delay min fan.

 

[hummybee]

He means have a time delay setting in the fan package so that the minimum setting is (say) 0% for the first 60 minutes and then 30% thereafter. I suggest having three user settings: initial min fan, minutes delay, post-delay min fan.

Not clear how this would be any/much benefit if subject to the 'Unless of cause it's needed' requirement?

That said, no harm in adding this option for those who understand/want it.

 

[Ezra Pound]

The point is that without the Fan utility most HDRs would have the fan off for possibly 2 hours from a cold start, then full on for a few minutes. With Fan installed, the fan runs for this first two hours, to get minimum fan revs and minimum noise, a 1.75 Hour delay is useful in my opinion

 

[BMAX]

Remember that the system will warm up quicker without the fan, so 1.75 hrs may be a little too long. The normal fan operation must also override this setting (as I assume it will), in order to to cater for the case if the PVR is turned off briefly after running for say, 1.74 hrs